Anyone else notice that listing tool no longer remembers preferences?
Summary: siamjane8 initiates a conversation about the challenges faced with eBay's business policies or templates, particularly due to the uniqueness and variety of their approximately 12,000 listings across different categories. They find these policies cumbersome as they require numerous adjustments for shipping weights and dimensions. jonathanbrightlight and onefootflipper provide insights on the use of calculated shipping and business policies, sharing tips for managing multiple carrier options and adjusting to price hikes efficiently. Despite the alternatives suggested, siamjane8 prefers the flexibility of using the 'sell similar' feature for each unique item listed. The discussion highlights the pros and cons of using structured vs. flexible listing approaches in e-commerce.
For the last week or so... the listing tool no longer keeps my shipping options or handling fee from the last lisiting i did.
Every listing is like starting over from scratch- it like they did another update and goofed up the user "last setting used" preference again.
Before- even if i did a sell similar item from another listing- my 4 shipping options and my handling fee would be selected and pre-filled so all i have to do is change the shipping dimensions and weight and good to go- now it takes 2x longer to select everythign EVERY listing------what is going on ebay?
siamjane8
OP4 months agoJust this afternoon the listing tool started remembering my last used selections again so they must have fixed it finally.....
chapeau-noir
·4 months agoI use templates - the sell similar method has too many pitfalls.
siamjane8
OP4 months ago@chapeau-noir @onefootflipper
We have over 12,000 inique listings between 2 accounts- every listing is completely unique and most of the time completely different from the last one listed, so business policies and templates have proven to be more frustrating and cause more work than they are worth. I have tried both in the past.... just does not work weel with the variety of listings we do. I may list a small 3 ounce part in parts/acc and the next item is an antique desk that is local pickup or a boat engine that is frieght- then vintage literature that is media mail next. All this accross 70 differing ebay categories.......
( biggest issue with business policies is that it removes the ability to adjust shipping dimensions and weight at the individual listing level so unless all items are within 1 lbs and same size- i needed hundreds of shipping business policies- just does not work)
jonathanbrightlight
·4 months ago@siamjane8
Business Policies do not remove the ability to input the weight and dimensions at the listing level, at least not with Calculated Shipping. We have been using them for years, and we input the weight and dimensions on each listing as we create it, separately from choosing the shipping policy.
siamjane8
OP4 months ago@jonathanbrightlight interesting... i wonder if they updated or improved it then because a couple years ago that was the biggest issue i had. Can you reorder or change the or add or delete the selected carriers like UPS FED EX USP at the individual listing level?
onefootflipper
·4 months agoBusiness policies have not changed in at least 6 years. I don't know about reordering carriers but I also NEVER offer the buyer a choice in carriers, that just ties my hands as a seller. You do NOT have to ship with the same carrier the policy says, as long as you are shipping at the same level of service. Most of my listings are on a calculated ground advantage policy, but a good half of those end up going Fed Ex or UPS later. No complaints, no issues.
I use the following policies.
Standard Envelope.
Standard Envelope "Posters" (for posters and other paperwork folded into a larger envelope usually going at 3 ounce rate instead of 1 ounce).
$9.99 Standard Envelope. For trading cards in that price range between $20 and $30 this allows me to still use standard envelope by shifting some of the cost to the shipping. Everyone buying the cards seems to understand this, never even had a question about it. Only downside is that the item is still only insured for the sale price, not the shipping cost.
"First Class" Items under 8 ounces shipped, is fixed price, with $1 each for extra items.
Ground Advantage. Calculated, most items use this.
Fedex. For most anything with a dimension over 22".
$10.99 flat. Bags, Backpacks, golf clubs, bats and posters with a dimension over 22".
The huge advantage to business policies is that every time shipping costs go up I can change my flat rate prices on all my listings in seconds.
jonathanbrightlight
·4 months agoNo, but you can just create policies with each set of carriers you would use. You can have a huge number of policies, though of course it gets unwieldy if you have too many. It also sorts your most commonly used policies to the top, which is convenient for how we use them.
siamjane8
OP4 months ago@onefootflipper @jonathanbrightlight thats what i thought.... yeah they are just to unwieldy for our business. shoehorns me in. I prefer using the sell similar feature after i have found one that sold or is very similar.
I have switched to calculated shipping on 100% of listings so it always keeps up with price hikes and takes the shipping cost out of the equation when considering offers.
I also ship however i want - often upgrading from the shipping selected but i figure offering more options may appease the ebay algorithm gods!??
thanks though for your suggestions
onefootflipper
·4 months agoI guess I just cannot understand what is unwieldy about them? I literally just pick the appropriate one from a drop down box and I am done. I don't have to sell similar or anything like that, and it avoids the situation you have where you have seemingly thousands of old listings with arbitrary shipping costs far below what it will cost you to ship them out today.
I can't understand mixing free shipping in there either. Item price stays the same, the amount of money it costs you to ship the item goes up twice per year. That is a big deal in a store like yours where the average item takes nearly 41 months to sell. That is 3-7 increases on shipping cost on your average free ship item before it sells.
I get that average time to sell by just doing the math on items listed versus items sold last 90 days, in your case that translates to 40 months and 20 days.
chapeau-noir
·4 months ago@siamjane8 I can see the problem with the templates with your variety - I would probably have some for some of the most common categories, though. I don't do business policies - I've never seen the point even when I was full time, and for most of the time since business policies were rolled out, I didn't even qualify. Even when I was full time they made no sense to me because my operations landed in such a small range. When I finally qualified I did try them, but they kind of just got in the way, particularly when they started replicating like some strange alien beast. A lot of people really like them, though.
onefootflipper
·4 months agoWhy don't you just use business policies. This is definitely not happening with business policies.
lakefor94
·4 months agoWell, as you know, eBay ain't here but I do appreciate the heads up as I will be listing some this evening.